Joel Kotkin: The Great California Exodus

A leading U.S. demographer and ‘Truman Democrat’ talks about what is driving the middle class out of the Golden State.
By ALLYSIA FINLEY

“California is God’s best moment,” says Joel Kotkin. “It’s the best place in the world to live.” Or at least it used to be.
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Now, however, the Golden State’s fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn’t Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere.

Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families.

As “they” say, RTWT. But some quick math. 100,000 more Americans moving into California than leaving during the 1980s makes 1,000,000 American “profit”. The “loss” of 4,000,000 since the 1980s leaves the accounting books for the past 30 years at a 3,000,000 American soul “loss”.

California has less than 60 million souls. And far less than that number of actual “legally here” souls. And even fewer American souls. For over 4 million souls to vamoose, it would take 6-2/3 percent reduction in American Citizen population over 20 years. Since California has seen a nominal increase in population since Y2K, that means far more than 6-2/3 percent of the total already living in California was added to California by the foreigner influx. Commenter Hoagie’s wife (God bless her soul) just this week became a US Citizen. And she is arguably more Conservative than I, as she grew up within 60 miles of the DMZ. But she differs from California’s immigrants in that she came here legally and she loves the US, while the lion’s share of California’s immigrants are in the US illegally and have no fealty whatsoever with the US. And, contrary to Hoagie’s wife June, it is illegal for them to vote. But they provide a massive amount of support for allocating California’s 53 Representatives to Congress.

Alright, I went on a tangent there for a moment. I’m back. California is sinking into the abyss. Rapidly. California is shedding employers at an alarming rate. And the people California needs to turn California around? They’re fleeing California, too.

What does all of this mean? It means that, in California’s time of greatest need, those who are most able to rescue California have either already left or are in the process of leaving. There was a very popular game back in the 1980s where you spun a marble in a funnel and tried to time its drop before releasing your own marble. The closer you got to the drop point, the more points you scored. As anyone who ever played that game knows, the closer that marble got to the end-point, the faster it spun. Also, there was no telling when that marble would actually give up the ghost and enter its final fall.

This is California. It will fall. It will collapse. It is only a matter of timing. And the responsibility for its fall rests four-square on the shoulders of the residents who continue to elect radical Socialist Democcrats as the people’s lives become evermore unsustainable.

California is collapsing. Those who could save California are fleeing the collapse. That means California will collapse that much sooner. That means even more people who could possibly save California will flee to other states. That means California will collapse that much sooner. That means even more people who could possibly save California will flee to other states. That means California will collapse that much sooner. That means even more people who could possibly save California will flee to other states. … … … …

Anyone else see a pattern?

UPDATE
The Wall Street Journal article, written by a woman, made its way into Hot Air Headlines and got far more comments than normal.

5 Responses to “Flee California Now!”

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